Yesterday, while our family worked in the yard, I weeded the flower beds. Later, while rocking Aaron to sleep, I thought about how those weeds grow so fast. They come up all over, even penetrating the plastic barrier under the mulch. They're not always ugly looking plants, and for all I know, they may have been the plants that flourished and made our land beautiful before it was covered with homes, schools, and churches; but they take away from the beauty of the design of our flower beds. They also take the nutrients that we want our plants to use to grow bright and beautiful.
Those weeds are so much like the sin in our lives. Some might say that our sins are a part of who we are and we need to accept them as part of what makes us beautiful and unique. Like David said in Psalms 51:5, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." However, like the weeds in our yard, just because sin was in me first, it definitely doesn't make me more beautiful.
Like weeds, sin is strong and penetrating; it can sneak up in the blink of an eye. Even though we think we've pulled it up by its roots, it keeps coming back.
Thankfully, my Jesus said "...for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9:13). "Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring [us] to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit..." (1 Peter 3:18). "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9.).
Dear God, thank you for calling me, a sinner, to you. Thank you for sending your son, Jesus, to save me from my sins. Thank you for always providing a way of escape from every temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13). Please take my weeds out, and help me to "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let [me] run with perseverance the race marked out for [me]" (Hebrews 12:1).
While this blog was a beautifully written attempt to relate unwanted weeds with sin, I must disagree with your biblical quote contesting the statement that "some might say that our sins are part of who we are..." Come on ... a newborn baby is incapable of sin (except pooping and crying to upset their parents)! Who but an actual person can have a sinful nature? Rocks and trees and animals and human organs do not have moral natures, good or bad. Morality can be ascribed only to a person. That there is a sin nature at the point of conception demonstrates that there is a person present who is capable of having such a nature.
ReplyDeleteSome have seen in this verse evidence to support the belief that sin is passed down through the family line, or that David’s birth was illegitimate. All of these meanings are read into the Psalm, not out of it. The bible is full of simile, metaphor, hyperbole, hendiadys, irony, euphemisms, antithesis, ellipsis, apostrophe and personifications! In this instance we surely have a hyperbole.
Hyperbole...Definition: A exaggeration to make or reinforce a point.
Matt. 19:24 (Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25): "...it is easier for an camel to go through the eye of needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Traditionally it has been said that there was a gate in the walls of Jerusalem called the "Needle’s Eye," through which an un-laden camel could squeeze through with great difficulty. However, the obvious meaning, and the one we all teach in church, is that, after all, it is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a real needle, or that it is "almost" impossible to get a camel through that "Needle's Eye" gate and that was precisely Jesus’ point. It is virtually impossible for one who trusts in riches to enter the kingdom. It takes a miracle for a rich person to get saved, which is quite the point of what follows: "All things are possible with God."
Jesus was very found of hyperbole, and used it frequently in His teaching.....
If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. (Matt. 5:29) (Taken literally, this infers that I have my left eye closed!)
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26) (I have to hate my mother to be saved?)
Tom B.
@AnonymousHi Tom! Is this my cousin, Tom Bankhead? Thank you so much for reading my blog and giving me feedback! I know what you mean about there being much hyperbole, etc. in the Bible and I probably shouldn't have used the scripture by David, because I think he was really expressing his remorse more than anything. Also I don't want anyone to think that I believe my precious 8 month old Aaron has sinned. Of course the sweet little thing has NOT sinned!
ReplyDeleteI am not a theologian and have a limited understanding on these matters. I know that God created us and that we were created in His image. Also, David says in the Psalms “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.” In Romans 2:14 Paul says that “indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” This seems to me to say that we were created with a good nature and knowledge of God in our hearts.
Later in Romans 5:19, Paul says “For just as the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” This seems to me to say that we all have a sinful nature. At that point I think the good nature that God created us with is in a struggle with our sinful nature. Then in Galations 5:24 Paul said that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” I think we are still in that struggle, but can have hope because Jesus has overcome.
So, according to your comment, I guess it comes down to the definition of a person. I believe the person is present at conception and does have a nature. But then I guess the question would be does this sinful nature separate a baby from God. Matthew 18:10 tells us that Jesus said “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. In Hebrews 1:14 we read that angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation." So my understanding of this is that angels are serving our little children who are heirs of salvation.
All I really know is that I’ve been sinning for as long as I can remember and my 2 older children began sinning or willfully doing wrong at ages that astonished me! I’m so thankful that Jesus died for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2) including our children’s.